Middle East carriers had the strongest annual traffic growth at 13 per cent last year, as the region’s economies continued to show robust growth in non-oil sectors and are well-placed to withstand the plunge in oil revenues, according to a report.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) revealed that the region’s capacity rose 11.9 per cent and load factor climbed 0.8 percentage points to 78.1 per cent.

The global demand (revenue passenger kilometres) rose 5.9 per cent last year, compared to the previous year, it said.

The 2014 performance was above the 10-year average growth rate of 5.6 per cent and the 5.2 per cent annual growth experienced in 2013 compared to 2012.

The capacity, meanwhile, rose 5.6 per cent last year, with the result that load factor climbed 0.2 percentage points to 79.7 per cent.

All regions saw demand grow in 2014, with more than half of the growth in passenger travel occurred on airlines in emerging markets including Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

In recent months domestic market growth played a large role in driving growth. This is owed mainly to a pick-up in Chinese domestic travel which expanded by some 11 per cent in 2014 over the previous year.


Tony Tyler, director general and chief executive officer, Iata, said: “Demand for the passenger business did well in 2014. With a 5.9 per cent expansion of demand, the industry out-performed the 10-year average growth rate. Carriers in the Middle East posted double-digit growth while results in Africa were barely above previous-year levels.

“Overall a record 3.3 billion passengers boarded aircraft last year—some 170 million more than in 2013. While it is clear that people will continue to travel in growing numbers, there have been signs in recent months that softening business confidence is translating into a levelling off of international travel demand.” - TradeArabia News Service